Ch.21 A Revolution Begins, and the Great War Ends
The Russian Revolution
- Now Lenin and the Bolsheviks were in charge. Lenin suggested renaming the Bolsheviks the ˝Communist Party‘-the party working for the common good. The communists believed that Christianity was false and wrong, so they changed the names of the cities in Russia that were named after Christian saints. St. Perersburg became Leningrad˝ And right away, Lenin and the communists signed a peace treaty with Germany.
- This new way of living, ˝communism,˝ was supposed to make sure that the government, instead of a small group of powerful people, had control over Russia. But who was in the government? That‘s right- a small group of powerful people, Lenin and his followers!
The End of World War I
- The new strength of the American soldiers, joining with the Allied forces that had fought for four long, weary years, finally tipped the balance of the war against the Central Powers. On November 11th, 1918, Germany was forced to surrender. The power of the Second Reich was broken. All over the world, exhausted soldiers heard the great news: An armistice (an end to fighting) had been declared.
- In 1918, Great Britain passed a new law called the Reform Act. Because women had worked so hard to help win the war, every woman over the age of thirty could vote. (In 1928, Britain changed the law so that women twenty-one and older could vote, too.)
- For women in America to vote, an amendment to the Constitution had to be passed. In 1918, Congress agreed to begin the process of changing the Constitution so that women could gain suffrage.
